Hearts May Cry
by Vitale
Summary: After facing a Hell Vanguard, Nero and V find themselves in a Town untouched by the underworld, yet why does it feel so unreal. (I will be using material from the DMC5 trailer's,game-play and Leaks, so watch out for spoiler's)
1. Chapter 1

Nero yawned as he woke up from a nap that even he didn't know was taking. After a long obnoxious yawn, he decided to open his eyes, only to snap them close as the brightness of the sun assaulted his eyes.

"Damn it, can't the sun take a vacation." He groaned out in annoyance, after blinking a bit, his eyes finally adjusted to the brightness.

Looking around he found himself in some sort of train, only for him to blink when he saw the other living being sitting across from gim.

It was Griffon, V's pet bird or familiar whatever you wanna call it. It just sat there staring at him for a good couple seconds, before it spoke up.

"About time your lazy ass woke, you're snoring was so irritating that I was thinking of ending my own existence." It squawked out.

Scowling, Nero was about to retort before he felt something wet on his left shoulder. Turning around he looked at the source. His left eyebrow started to twitch when he saw the source, it was V, and the bastard was drooling all over his jacket, unlike most people who just have small drops of saliva, the guy was like damn a second thought, Nero raised his left hand and shoved V's head off of him. He proceeded to stand up and shake his jacket trying to get some of the drool off of him. To his satisfaction though, some of the drool was landing on Griffon, with it squawking out curses here and there. Nero couldn't stop himself from grinning.

'Take that you little bastard.' He thought to himself with a snicker. He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a groan from his spell casting companion.

V sat up and proceeded to rub the left side of his head, and looked around. The first thing he saw was his companions soaked in water, no, it was saliva. Feeling the right side of his face, it felt like someone dumped an entire cup of water on him.

His face lit up to a small blush. 'Damn it, I thought stopped doing that a long time ago.'

"Well, well, well, it seems his majesty decided to finally rise from his royal slumber, do you wish us to clean you up sire." Griffon jabbed out.

Sighing with annoyance, V rubbed his eyes and decided to ignore his familiar. With Griffon trying to gain his attention he turned towards Nero, and asked him the question they all had in mind.

"Where are we ?"

"It's obvious we're on a train, what i'm wondering though is where we're headed." Nero looked through the windows and his breath died in his throat. What he saw was a small town, with the tallest building being a train station with a bell on the top. That wasn't what surprised him though, it was the state of the town. It looked…...normal, with people milling about and doing there daily necessities without a care in the world, children playing, birds chirping in trees, dogs and cats tussling. He couldn't help but just stare. V and Griffon looked at each other before proceeding doing the same thing, and it had the same effect on them.

"H-How is this possible, no place in the entire world is supposed to be safe, Urizen' reign should've infested everything, and yet this small town, is completely unaffected ." V spoke out with complete shock and surprise.

"I don't know, but one way or the other we're gonna get some answers." Nero responded reaching for his sword ,the Red Queen.

Only to feel nothing but air.

Blinking, he looked over his shoulder, only not to see his sword' red handle. Allowing his hand to flop down his side, he looked at his right arm, and as expected, Gerbera, the last Devil Breaker he used before blacking out was no longer there. He checked the back of his belt and didn't feel any of the other Devil Breaker' he had on hold. With little hope he checked his gun holster, hoping to feel the cool metal of his revolver, Blue rose, only to come up empty. Sighing, he looked over at V, only to see him in the same predicament as him.

V was looking all over his person, and the train seats trying to find his Cane, only to come up empty. Looking at Nero, shaking his head. Nero let out a small "tch" and looked out the window again.

"Well, whoever brought us here, sure as hell didn't want us putting up a fight."

"It would seem so."

For the next five minutes, they just stared out the windows of the train, looking at town basked in the sun's light. It has been such a long time since they've seen something so untouched, pure, innocent. It reminded Nero of the time before Urizen' reign, where Redgrave City, looked just like this town. Well not exactly with the occasional demon popping out trying to wreak havoc, but that's besides the point. He was snapped out of his thoughts when the train jolted to a stop, nearly throwing him into V and Griffon. Standing up straight he turned towards the train doors slowly opening, he cautiously walked towards them with V doing the same. Griffon jumped on to his summoner's left shoulder, and sat there with small crackling of electricity dancing on his wings, ready for a fight.

Nero, took one step forward out of the train and looked around. It looked light your typical train station, with other sets of trains coming and going, people meeting with loved ones, some blonde haired kid running straight towards you.

…..wait.

Blinking, Nero looked in front of him to see some blonde haired teenager coming towards them. Once the kid reached them, he planted his hands on his knees and started panting, like he ran some sort of marathon.

"H...Hi M...y-."

"Jesus, kid take a breather don't want you passing out on the ground." Nero spoke out with a grin.

Blushing in embarrassment, the teen took a deep breath before speaking.

"Umm..hi, my name's Roxas, and I just wanted to greet you guys to twilight town."

* * *

Sorry if my writing seems pretty bad, i'm an amateur


	2. Chapter 2

Nero couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the strange name. He never heard of a name like Roxas' before.

'Like I should be talking.' Nero thought to himself. Not wanting to leave the kid hanging he decided introduce himself.

"Nice to meet you Roxas, name's Nero, my moody friend here is V, and his ugly pet bird is Griffon."

Both V and Griffon gave Nero their own set of glares, before looking back towards Roxas. When they looked back towards them, they noticed him having a small smile from their banter, though he did give V a curious expression.

"So you're name is just V?"

"Yes, just V."

"Like, the letter V?"

"...Yes.." V spoke through gritted teeth, he didn't even have to turn around to know Nero and Griffon we're enjoying this.

Roxas nodded in understanding, though he still looked a little confused. Shaking his head, he turned towards Nero, since he seemed easier to talk to, and was about to ask him why decided to visit his town. Before he was interrupted by several pairs of footsteps, looking behind him, with his new acquaintance's doing the same. They saw three other teenagers running towards them, with one plump one struggling to keep up with his friends. When they finally made it, Roxas couldn't help but blush in embarrassment.

'Guess I got a little too excited…'

When they all caught their breath, the blonde one walked up to Roxas and punched him on the shoulder.

"Ow….Hayner what was that for." Roxas whined while rubbing his now aching shoulder.

"That's for leaving us behind, and nearly making Pence pass out." He bit back as he looked over at his chubby friend laying down at the ground talking about some sort of light. Shaking his head he looked towards their only female friend only to see her in some sort of trance. He waved his hand in front of her face to no avail, shaking his head he decided to introduce himself to the newcomers only to freeze. He certainly didn't expect such characters appearing in his small town.

With one having short white hair, blue eyes, a tattered jacket, and…..Hayner couldn't help but wince when he noticed the guy's missing limb. The stranger must've noticed since he moved his right arm behind his back. Reminding himself to apologize, he looked towards the other stanger. This one looking even more suspicious, the first thing he noticed was the large amount of tattoos the guy had. Covered by most of his black clothing, he looked towards his face noticing his black hair parted to the right face, exposing the black expression present on his face. He noticed movement on the strangers shoulder and saw probably the largest bird he's ever seen. Before he could continue analyzing it, the white haired one spoke up.

"Hey kid, what's the matter with your friend here?" Blinking, he looked towards Olette, without a second he walked up to her, and flicked her forehead. She flinched and rubbed her forehead, while giving Hayner a teary eyed glare. Ignoring her, he turned back around to introduce himself.

"Sorry about that, she starts daydreaming once she sees someone she likes." Olette's glare turned even deadlier, and her blush grew even deeper. "Let me introduce myself, the name's Hayner, the one dying on the ground is Pence." Pence gave a weak wave. "And the daydreamer is Olette." Olette gave a small shy wave, and Nero responded with awkward wave himself. Olette froze and immediately turned around and covered her face. Everyone else couldn't help but sweatdrop.

"Well it's was nice meeting you kid's but we've got some business to attend to." Nero spoke out, as he walked past them with V right behind him.

"W-wait." Roxas spoke out.

Letting out a sigh Nero looked over his shoulder. "What is it kid, we've got some business to attend to."

'Like figuring out where the hell we are.'

Roxas scratched his head before he had an idea. "How about we show you around, you're not familiar with the town like we are, we've lived here for our entire lives, it could make it easier for you guys."

Looking at each other, they contemplated about the offer before they relented.

"Alright kid you got us, show us the way." Nero spoke with defeat, with V frowning in disapproval.

'We don't have time for this foolishness, we have to return to Redgrave city and stop Urizen before it's too late.' V thought to himself with suppressed anger, with Griffon trying to calm him down.

Roxas' eyes widened before smiling, with his friends mentally cheering him for his quick thinking, and with that they proceeded to walk out of the train station.

As Nero and V followed Roxas' and his friend through a certain of certain section Market Street, known as Station Height's, they were telling them all about Twilight Town, it's characteristics, the pros and cons. You know, you're average town, Hayner was telling them about their Usual Spot, and where they hang out, before he froze with his friends doing the same. Nero and V immediately put their guard and prepared for the worst. Only to see a bunch of teenagers,Nero wanted to laugh, he expected true threats,like Demons, or Dante running around naked, drunk, while throwing pizza all over his shop. He still couldn't help but shiver when Lady, showed him her wrath. Snapping back into reality, he watched as the bullies walked towards them, trying to seem threatening, and dangerous. Nero and V tried to hold in their chuckles, while Roxas and his friends scowled at them.

"Well if it isn't the losers club, trying to act like they own the place. Leading around the new guys without our permission ?" The beanie wearing blonde spoke out, with a shit-eating grin on his face, while his lackeys stood by his side

Not a second later they all started throwing insults at each other, the tall tanned one, Rai, kept saying "y'know" after every single sentence,the silver haired girl,Fuu, just gave one word insults. Vivi, the small…...child ? Just stood back and watched, not wanting to get into any trouble. He was about to break up their small verbal battle, before he sensed it. His head snapping towards the location of the dark energy resonation. Turning towards V and Griffon, they all gave each other a nod before turning towards the alley the "Disciplinary committee" came from.

"Sorry kiddies, but we gotta get going, important adult business, someone special to meet." Without waiting for a response he sped away with V right behind him.

Roxas rose his hand to call out for them, but they were already long gone.

"See what you did Seifer, you just had to come along and ruin everything." Hayner drawled out with a scowl, and just like that the verbal war resumed. Vivi looked at all of them before deeply sighing.

'How do I always get myself into this mess?'

Nero quickly ran through the alley, and stopped, allowing V to catch up to him. Already knowing what to do he quickly sent Griffon towards the sky, allowing him to scout ahead for them. After a couple seconds he returned.

"How many are there ?" V asked

"There's 5 demon's in total, 4 of them are just fodder, just your typical Hell Caina's, what we really need to worry about though is the Hell Judecca."

They both processed the information quickly, Hell Caina's, were a joke, even in the underworld, but the Hell Judecca is another story. Without their weaponry, they were really gonna have to work for it. Looking back up towards Griffon he asked his own question.

"Is there enough space in area for us to properly fight."

"More than enough, it's a giant sandlot, as an added bonus no human are nearby, so we get to show off more. You two are gonna have to be careful though, with Shit for brains here, not having any of his weapons, and you without your cane or wand whatever you wanna call it, it's gonna take you longer to summon Shadow."

Deciding to strangle Griffon later, Nero looked towards V and told him his simple but risky plan.

"This is what we're gonna do, i'm gonna go in there and try to kill off the Hell Caina's while distracting the Hell Judecca, you stay here and try to summon Shadow as quick as you can."

"Wai-"

"Look V, without your Cane, we both know you won't be able to use most of your spells, and your fighting skills are OK at best. Trust me on this."

V contemplated for a couple seconds, before giving a hesitant nod.

"Very well, make sure you stay alive, I don't want Dante trying to skewer when we return."

"Who the hell do you think I am, dying from some low level Demons, don't worry I got this." Nero gave out a quick grin before quickly running down the stairs, towards the Sandlot. Taking one last look at Nero's retreating figure he turned towards his bird familiar.

"Help him Griffon, summoning Shadow will take some time."

"Aye-Aye."

With both of them gone, V quickly started the summoning of shadow.

When making it down the stairs, he was glad the Demon's were oblivious to his appearance, looking up, he saw Griffon circling the demons. With one last deep breath, Nero charged.

"HEY ASSHOLE." All the demons quickly turned towards him, but one unlucky Hell Caina got the full force of Nero's dropkick. It was propelled backwards falling into another of its kind. Using the Hell Caina's slow movements to his advantage, he quickly grabbed the downed one's Scythe with his left hand, and stabbed it in the chest, killing it instantly. Grinning, Nero quickly jumped away, almost getting skewered by the Hell Judecca's blade's. The Hell Caina that was underneath it's brother, slowly got with a growl.

'One down, three to go.' Looking up he gave Griffon a quick nod, and the bird quickly swooped down and proceeded to send out red bolts of lightning, affecting all of the demons at once. Charging forward, Nero attacked with a horizontal slash, piercing the body of one unlucky Caina, it growled and groaned trying slide itself off of the scythe to no avail. Keeping up his momentum, he did the same thing to another Caina. With a demon Shish Kebab ready to serve, he rose the Scythe up in the air before slamming in down into the ground. Both Caina's instantly died from having the blade going deeper inside of them, to getting slammed into the concrete ground. With that done, Nero looked towards the Judecca only to see it trying to smack Griffon away, as he shot Lightning balls towards it. Finding the last Caina, he quickly charged towards it and tackled it, his nose quickly scrunched up from the Demon's foul breath, but he endured. Raising his left hand, he started to continuously punch it's boney face until cracks started forming all over its head.

"EAT SHIT." He roared out as he gave out one last devastating punch to it's skull, completely destroying it. He couldn't help but smirk at his handiwork, before his eyes widened, and quickly jumped off the dead Demon's disintegrating carcass. Landing he didn't have time to rest as he had to quickly dodge another curved blade. Looking in front of him, he noticed the Judecca floating in place, watching his every move. Griffon flew towards him before landing on his shoulder.

"That cheating bastard, he's starting to use his teleporting abilities more and more. Not only that but he's starting to figure out your genius plan, what do you think we should do now."

Before he could respond, he heard footsteps,and a low growl. Turning around he couldn't help but smirk when he saw V and the shapeshifting demon, Shadow.

"It seems we're not too late to your social gathering."

"Don't worry, the party's barely getting started." Standing up, Nero faced the Judecca with the rest of companions doing the same. They all just stood there, waiting for eachother to make the first move, the Judecca teleported without a moment's hesitation. With that they all quickly jumped away, as it appeared behind them. Shadow quickly jumped back and turned some of the fur on its back into large spikes, the Judecca didn't have time to move as the spikes pierced its torso. Before it could let out a growl, Griffon appeared above him and once again attacked it with large bolts of lighting. It let out growls of pain, and started slashing around itself. Shadow retreated its spike, while Griffon flew away from it's rampage. Nero, watched as it continued to flail its blades around in anger, seeing an opening he quickly looked towards V, as he responded with a simple nod. V slid underneath its blades, and jumped up wrapping his arms around the Judecca's throat. Even though he wasn't as strong as Nero, he still had enough physical strength to scare the Judecca. With it flailing around even more, and trying to get V off of him, Nero did the same as V, except he jumped on to the Judecca's torso, and started to literally punch its face in.

"This is the end asshole, give it up." It was true, with V strangling him and Nero destroying its skull, with its last bit of energy, it quickly teleported away, making both of them let go. As it tried to retreat, it failed to notice Shadow appearing in front of it and transforming itself into a Venus fly trap. Without even giving it a single second to recuperate, it snapped its mouth shut and proceeded to devour it in one bite.

"Damn, I guess you were right, your pets do get hungry." Nero joked, Griffon was about to electrocute the 'white haired bastard' before he noticed something,or someone in the corner of his eye. His eyes quickly snapped back towards his companions.

"HEY, THAT SHADY ASSHOLE WAS WATCHING US THE WHOLE TIME, HE HAS TO KNOW SOMETHING."

Both Nero and V, looked back at the stairs they came from, only to see a black cloaked figure running up them.

"We can't let him get away, this is our only chance of truly knowing where we are." V growled out.

"Right back atcha." With that they started to chase their new 'acquaintance'.

* * *

Riku let out a small swear, he couldn't believe he allowed himself to be seen, he had to quickly teleport back to the mansion or it was all over. As he reached the stairs, the panther looking creature appeared on his right and pounced him. He rose his right hand to use Dark Aura ability, only to get his wrist grabbed, looking up he saw the white haired man, Nero, ready to end him. Before he could retaliate, the fur on the panthers face turned into thousand of small spikes, ready to skewer him. Riku grit his teeth in anger, he didn't have time for this,he needed to return to make sure everything went according to plan, he needed to save his best friend, he needed to save So-

"That is quite enough."

His eyes snapped wide open, upon hearing the familiar elderly voice, he allowed relief to wash over him.

"Oh, and who the hell are you ?"

"That is a question to be answered another time."

"You are in no position to be denying us." Spoke up the tattooed man, V.

The man standing in front them calmly started at them with his single orange eye. For seconds they just stood there staring at each other, waiting for one of them to make the first move. Finally the stranger decided to speak.

"If you kill him, you will be trapped here for all of eternity and will never be allowed to escape, I am the only chance you have."

Both Nero and V gritted their teeth, they started at the man for a couple seconds before they relented. Commanding Shadow to release the cloaked stranger, it let out one final growl before backing away, and letting its fur return to its normal state.

Riku, slowly got up and walked back towards the stranger. He gave a small nod of thanks but the man paid it no mind. Taking a deep breath he spoke.

"With that little predicament out of the way, let me properly introduce myself, my name DiZ."

Nero and V responded with stiff nods, still not lowering their guard.

"Now let me ask you a question, where are you two truly from?"


	3. Chapter 3

Nero rose an eyebrow before answering. "Red Grave City, now yo-"

"I have never heard of such a place."

"The hell do you mean you've never heard of the place." Scowling, Nero turned towards V only for him to shrug in response. Sighing, Nero turned back towards the bandaged man.

"Alright then, since you've never heard of Red Grave, how about Fortuna ?" It was stretch, since the people who didn't live on the island, thought the inhabitants were completely insane, and he couldn't blame them, worshipping a Demon like some sort of God, what a joke.

"No…"

"DAMNIT OLD MAN YOU'RE STARTING TO PISS ME OFF." He was about to rant, before he felt a hand on his left shoulder. Turning around, towards V, he noticed the expression on his face. Sighing he decided to back off….for now.

"I apologize, for my companions rudeness, he's simply worried because we have some….unfinished business to attend to."

"I understand, because of your kindness I will YOUR question young man." As DiZ started chuckling, multiple veins started appearing on Nero's forehead, and he clenched his fist to control his anger. V nodded and asked him the question he's had since he first woke up.

"My first question is, why does this entire place feel so…...unreal ?" DiZ and his cloaked companion, both froze at the question, though they tried to hide, they still noticed it.

"I know it may seem like a strange question, but…" With that , V placed his right hand on the nearest wall, and started to inject it with his own magic. Some of the tattoos on his right arm faded away and re-appeared on the wall, as V injected more of his magic into the wall, the wall _teared_ open, like a piece of paper. Inside of it, there was no concrete, instead it was a bunch of Zero's and One's.

DiZ and the cloaked figure couldn't believe it, just by placing his hand on the wall, the tattooed young man found out the secret to the Virtual world.

"This place is nothing but a fake. Computer generated if you may. I first noticed when I couldn't sense any life coming from the people, or the animals, they felt completely lifeless. Except for that Roxas boy, for some odd reason he only feels half complete, would you mind answering that ?"

Nero gawked at his companion. He turned towards the two strangers and couldn't help but smirk in triumph.

'Nice one V.' He mentally cheered for his companion.

DiZ stood there, still staring at the tear in the wall, before giving sighing and giving them a small smirk.

"I must say that is very impressive young man, you must be very talented at the arts of magic, to do that without any sort of struggle, as a congratulations, I will answer any questions you have." The cloaked figure looked startled and immediately turned towards him, only for a single sideward glance to stop him from speaking, relenting he turned back towards the two young men.

Taking his hand off the wall, with his tattoos reappearing on his arm, he asked him his first question

"How did we end up here ?"

"That is a…..complicated question, when you first appeared, it was in my laboratory, you three came crashing down from a portal, that screamed nothing but darkness, and to make sure you didn't try to cause any harm to the civilians of the real world, I placed you in this fake one to make sure none of you are a threat, and dispose of you, if you are."

Nero's eyes widened, deciding to ignore the jab and came to realization when he heard portal, snapping his fingers, garnering the attention of everyone else.

"That's right !, we were fighting that annoying ass Hell Vanguard, and when it tried to teleport away, we chased after it, though i'm pretty sure it was a bad idea killing it while we were IN the portal." Nero explained, with an undertone of annoyance of their carelessness. V was having the same thoughts as well.

'How could we be so foolish ?' He groaned mentally.

"Hell Vanguard, that's an interesting name, is it related to the creatures you disposed of in the sandlot ?"

"Yeah they're all Demons."

"Demons, you say ?"

"...Yeah, like the ones from hell, the underworld, the bad place, God's shit stai-"

"YES, I am familiar where Demons come from." DiZ spoke out, with his acquaintance quietly chuckling. Yet he still couldn't believe it, actual Demons, from the underworld rising up. What got him really worried, is how did they manage to infiltrate a fake world that he created without him noticing.

"I have another question "DiZ", what do you mean you've never heard of Red Grave City ?"

"Exactly what I meant, i've travelled to many places, and have never heard of such a place."

"Can you name some of the locations you do know ?"

DiZ nodded and proceeded to name the locations he's traveled to. He mentioned many names, but for some reason kept adding the word "World". As if it was separate to their own, that's when V's eyes widened and he quickly retreated back to Nero.

"Nero this isn't right."

"I know, the geezer's going senile."

"NO, that's not what I meant, do you know how portal using Demon's work ?" He whispered out harshly.

Nero thought for a second before shaking his head.

"Let me explain, for Demon's to properly travel to the Human world, they have to have keep a steady state of Concentration. Without their Concentration, they won't be able to properly open a portal, or if midway through they lose it, they either die or get sent to "location" completely unknown."

Nero stared at him for a couple second before his eyes widened.

"Like in those Sci-fi movies, when the Hyperdrive fucks up."

"Exactly."

"...Shit." Nero massaged his forehead before responding. "We'll talk about this later, don't want the geezer figuring us out." V responded with a nod and they both looked back towards DiZ, only to sweatdrop, as the guy was just rambling on and on about his favorite type of Ice-Cream. Shadow was napping on the ground, and Griffon sat on top of the head of DiZ's now sleeping companion. Deciding to end their suffering, Nero spoke up,while V desummoned Shadow sending him back to wherever he came from.

"THANKS for the stories old man, but we gotta go, we still wanna get a familiar with this "lovely" town."

Snapping out of his trance, he coughed into his fist before responding.

"Yes….well, I will allow you to leave but I have one request."

Nero groaned. "And what would that be ?"

"Protect, Roxas." and with that, he smacked the back of his companion's head and disappeared in a portal of bright green numbers. The cloaked figure quickly woke up and did the same thing.

"Protect Roxas, from what those computer generated bullies, what a waste of time." While Nero continued to whine,Griffon obtained useful information from the geezer's rambling. Getting Nero and V's attention, he quickly explained that the virtual world,was made by DiZ himself and the main objective of the entire place, was to get Roxas to wake up someone named Sora.

"Wake him up, in what sort of way ?" Nero questioned.

"Don't know, cause right after he said that, he started to talk about what type of women he preferred and let me tell you now, he didn't leave anything out." Griffon finished with a shudder.

* * *

DiZ blushed in embarrassment, while Riku gave out a small chuckle.

* * *

Shaking his head, Nero looked towards the sky and noticed it was getting dark.

"Great, where are we gonna sleep." On cue an advertisement smacked itself onto his, growling he ripped it off his face and looked at it. It was an advertisement for an apartment, all they had to do was help the landlady with some labor. Looking at each other, they shrugged before heading towards the address.

After helping the elderly landlady take out some trash, they got the keys to their new apartment and headed towards their new living space. Thankfully there were two beds, so didn't have to worry about sleeping arrangement. As they both laid down, they couldn't help but think about the predicament they were in. A completely different universe, one that holds no similarities from their own (or so they thought), no Demon's roaming around the streets, massacring any living creature they saw. Keeping yourself on guard even in your own sleep.

'Now that Urizen decided to come up and say Hi, everything's gotten even worse….. He nearly killed Dante, he even used his damn Devil Trigger, and he still got his ass whooped. Do we even stand a chance…..?'

" _NERO GET OUT OF HERE, YOU'RE JUST DEAD WEIGHT!"_

Nero silently growled to himself. ' "Dead Weight", yeah right. I'm stronger than he thinks.'

As Nero was about to fall asleep, he finally remembered something. Sitting up, he called V.

"Hey V, how are we supposed to protect Roxas, if we don't have anything to protect ourselves." On cue, they heard several things fall onto the floor, mostly metallic. Looking over the edge, Nero couldn't help but grin, seeing all of his gear again, sure made things better. He wanted to check on his weapons, but his own loud yawn stopped him. Deciding to check on them in the morning, he gave V and Griffon one final "G'night" and fell into a deep slumber.

One thing Nero always hated ever since he was a kid, was the morning Sun. He groaned in annoyance, pulling the blankets over his head, only for the brightness to go straight through the blankets as well.

'I'm going to kill that old bastard, thinking he's God with his own world.'

Sitting up, Nero rubbed his eyes and looked over at his companions, they were both barely getting up as well. Deciding to get the morning over with, he stood up and was about to walk over to the bathroom.

Only to trip on Red Queen's large blade.

"YOU OLD BASTARD, YOU PLANNED THIS DIDN'T YOU !"

* * *

DiZ just laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

And ,Riku just watched as the old man nearly passed out from laughing too much.

* * *

Nero's anger grew even more when he heard the damn bird cackling.

'I'm gonna rip off his DAMN wings.'

Allowing V to go the bathroom first, he looked down towards all of his weapons. Red Queen, seemed completely untouched, it was clean enough where he could see his own reflection. He remembered it being caked it blood, but that's besides the point. He placed it on his back, and proceeded to look at Blue Rose, the double barreled revolver that got him out in more situations than one. He couldn't help marvel at its beauty. The Red Queen, and the Blue Rose, were two of the many things that he truly treasured. It may seem silly to others, to count weapons as treasure, but he didn't give a shit. Placing Blue Rose into its holster. He looked towards his Devil Breakers, the only one that was banged up and nearly destroyed was Gerbera.

'Guess they tried removing it, without completely destroying it.' He felt their pain, nearly blowing your hand off trying to take the damn thing off. He decided to place it on his back belt, seeing if he could try to repair it without killing himself. Looking towards his other Breakers, he decided to go with the Buster Breaker, as he was placing it on his metallic stump he went into a small trance. Everytime he looked at it, it reminded him of his Devil Bringer, Nero grit his teeth at the memory of the hooded figure ripping of his arm, and disappearing with Yamato. Shaking his head, he lined up the Breaker so it could properly connect to his nerves, and with a twist it snapped into place. Moving its metallic fingers, he couldn't help but gaze at it.

'It's crazy how Nico was able to come up with these things.'

After V came out of the bathroom, Nero decided to go in. V rose an eyebrow.

"Is it necessary for you to shower with all of that on ?"

"Don't worry they're waterproof." With that he closed the door and took his long awaited shower. V just gave the door a blank stare before retreating to his bed. Griffon sat down next to him before speaking.

"He's gonna end up killing himself in there isn't he."

"Most likely."


	4. Chapter 4

V's cane tapped onto the concrete ground, as they walked through Market Street, they couldn't help but marvel the small town. Even though they knew it was fake they couldn't help but look around, people buying their necessities from the nearby shops, children trying to convince their parents, into buying them candy. Nero exhaled a deep breath, while scratching the back of his head.

"V let's go check up on Roxas, if we do this job sooner than later, we might actually get out of here." Nodding in agreement, V led the way towards Roxas' location, since his sensing abilities were stronger than Nero's. As they walked up the path of Station Heights, they noticed the world was starting to shift around, as if something was interfering was wrong. V's eyes widened when he felt someone similar to Roxas, and as he looked up, he noticed all of the civilians were frozen as well. Looking up he noticed Roxas', "friends" were frozen as well. The other being, a young blonde haired girl, wearing a small white dress, was speaking to him, completely unaffected by the time shift. After a very short conversation, she turned around, leaving a very confused Roxas, and started walking towards their direction. Getting into a small panic, they both froze, and waited for her to pass.

Only to stop right in front of them.

'SHIT!' They both mentally yelled. They froze, thankfully she didn't seem to notice their turmoil, and continued to inspect them. She looked them up and down, while she went over V pretty quickly, noticing the strange tattoos, she seemed mostly interested in Nero. Looking at his sword, and the rest of his weaponry, she looked completely confused. While doing so, Nero was sweating bullets, creating a pool of sweat underneath their feet. After what seemed like forever she finally backed away and proceeded to walk away. Finally releasing their breaths, V backed away from Nero's sweat puddle and looked towards the girls direction. They heard footsteps rushing towards them and looked towards the person, it was Roxas and his face was a look of confusion. When he reached them though, it was replaced with a relieved smile.

"Nero, V!, where have you guys been, we didn't see you yesterday after you disappeared."

"Yeah, sorry about that kid, when we were getting ready to meet our business partners, we got jumped y a bunch of thugs."

"A-are you guys okay !?"

"Hell yeah, just cause I got one arm, doesn't mean I can't kick some ass."

Roxas let out a sigh relief, before noticing Nero's new robotic arm.

"WHOA, is that what you came here for !?" He couldn't help but ask, with complete excitement evident in his voice.

"Y-yeah, of course, since I lost my last one in an accident, they contacted me to see if I could test out their newest prototype." Roxas continued to stare at it in amazement, before he snapped back into reality.

"S-sorry but I'm looking for a girl."

"Aren't we all ?" Nero responded with a chuckle, Roxas blushed in embarrassment, while V's lips twitched upwards.

"Nah I'm just teasing kid, she went that way." He responded, while pointing towards her last direction.

"So she is going to the Haunted Mansion, thanks guys." Roxas thanked them, while running towards her direction.

"V, follow him, don't want any "thugs" hurting our new friend. I'll wait for you two in the Sandlot." V nodded in response before quickly following after Roxas. When Nero made it to the Sandlot, he sighed when he noticed the "Disciplinary Committee" ,chatting with each other.

'This is gonna be a long day.'

* * *

As V followed Roxas through a large hole in a wall, he noticed a portal forming in front of them. When the portal completely opened, three white creatures, looking similar to white jumpsuits, wiggled out and started to hovering towards Roxas. As two landed in front of him, one of them nearly grabbed him.

Before it was smacked away by a cane.

Blinking in surprise, he looked towards his savior only to see his tatted companion.

"Quickly we must leave here, if we stay here any longer, more of them may appear." Nodding in agreement, he quickly followed V with the strange creatures hot on their tail.

* * *

As Nero conversed with the three bullies, he realised they weren't so bad, just that they love to boss people around, and could be real jerks at times. Before they could continue, Nero noticed V and Roxas, running straight towards them, with some slippery looking creatures right behind them."

"So that loser came back for some more." Seifer spoke out with his usual haughty undertone.

"You kiddies better hide." Nero commanded as he walked forward.

"Hey, you can't just order us arou-!"

"I SAID NOW."

They jumped before they stepped back, deciding to listen to his command.

As V and Roxas arrived, Nero spun Red Queen around before slamming the blade into the ground and _revving_ it up to the Max-Act.

"Sorry you two, but I'm bagging these bitches." As the two of them stood behind Nero, he grabbed Red Queen with both hands, and sprang forward.

"ONE, TWO, BLAST!." Nero yelled out as he spun around three times with fire trailing his sword, killing the creatures with ease. Everyone couldn't help but stare in amazement, with the exception of V, they were all about to voice it as well, before more of them started popping up.

V smacked away more of the creatures with his cane, deciding not to use his familiars since they were not much of a threat. He also didn't want DiZ and his companion knowing more about their techniques, they already knew more than enough. Nero seemed to be thinking the same thing, since he wasn't using his Devil Breaker and using basic sword techniques.

Roxas, was amazed to say the least, he never saw someone with a real sword, let alone using one, and the way it just caught on fire when he _revved_ it like a motorcycle it was just...AWESOME, Roxas snapped out of his daydreaming when he noticed one of the creatures heading straight towards him. Quickly dodging away, he picked up a Struggle Sword, and tried attacking it, but no matter what he did, nothing seemed to be working. He started to panic, and it was evident in his swings. He noticed Seifer and his friends were trying to as well but they seemed to be in the same predicament as himself.

"Roxas, use the keyblade!" His head snapped upwards, so did Nero' and V'. He looked upwards a building and noticed the same blonde haired girl from earlier.

"ROXAS, WATCH OUT!" He heard Nero yell, and froze, in front of him the creature twist and turned, and charged him. He crossed his arms in front of him, and let out a panicked cry.

"DAMN IT." Nero yelled as he covered his eyes from the blinding light. He looked towards Roxas' spot, hoping for the kid to be there, only to be gone. Gritting his teeth, he charged towards the nearest creature and killed it one swing. V decided to end it quickly, so he commanded Griffon to attack them with Lightning Balls so he finish them off quickly with his Cane. He knew exactly when to strike, when he noticed the purple hue appearing around their bodies. After a couple of minutes, they finally finished them off. Before Nero could voice his anger, Roxas reappeared unconscious on the ground.

"Were those guys after you ?" Seifer accused in a threatening manner.

"Now that's a strange way of saying thank you isn't it." Nero growled back.

"Those guys showed up when you did, y'know ?"

"Culprits."

'Great, now his cronies are joining the fray.' Already annoyed and pissed off, he walked up to Seifer, with the latter having to slightly look up, and place his left hand on his shoulder and started squeezing. Seifer flinched heavily, but stayed his ground.

"Look you little shit, you better get out of here before I start to get really pissed." Nero threatened, while putting a bit more strength into his left. Seifer faltered and nearly fell on his knees, before he moved away from Nero.

"Whatever, just stay out of our way." and with that they finally walked away.

Appearing in Seifer's place was DiZ himself and he looked worried but for a completely different reason.

"It would seem that you have encountered some new friends."

"Cut the bullshit old man, what were those things, what are you really after, and what the hell is Roxas ?!" DiZ calmly looked at the two young men, before exhaling a deep sigh.

"I guess you have the right to know, those creatures you are referring to are known as Nobodies, but those are just simple fodder, known as Dusk. They way they are created is not very pleasant…...when someone' heart is completely swallowed by Darkness, the Darkness in their hearts turn into creatures known as Heartless. They are nothing but simple minded creatures with no emotions trying to capture the people' hearts, trying to reach a goal of feeling complete again, but that is simply impossible. The Nobodies are not completely different, but still have their own differences. Once a heart becomes a Heartless, the Nobodies are the remains of a heart. The body, for them to have a form, and the soul giving them life, but there certain instances when someone with a strong will, are able to create very strong Nobodies. They are nothing like the ones you just fought, their form appear Human and are very similar to one. The only difference is that they do not have a heart."

Nero and V processed the large amounts of information given to them., Heartless and Nobodies, any normal person would've thought of it as a joke, but when you spend most of your life fighting Demons and the supernatural it's not hard to believe. Looking back up V decided to confirms his theory.

"So Roxas is Nobody as well ?"

"That is correct but he is a very special one, the reason why is because he is the Nobody of a young man by the name of Sora." Nero and V nodded, they remember Griffon mentioning the name.

"Sora is a young man who is able a weapon known as the Keyblade, the Keyblade is an instrument that is able to unlock the secrets of Kingdom Hearts, a world of great power and wisdom, with a certain group trying to learn with any means necessary. The group are the same as Roxas, Nobodies born from strong wills trying to gain more power from Kingdom Hearts. If they do end up unlocking it, then all is lost."

Nero and V looked at each other, before allowing DiZ to continue.

"They would've completed some time ago, if it wasn't for Roxas' predicament. You see, when young Sora turned into a Heartless, he managed to revert back into his former self, because of that Roxas wasn't able to gather Sora' memories and was never complete. With the Organization, known as Organization XIII, scurrying around they trapped Sora into a place known as Castle Oblivion, replacing his memories with false ones. For Sora to truly wake up, we need Roxas here to gather those scattered memories and return them to Sora."

Nero rubbed his forehead when he felt a headache forming after he processed all the information.

"So, the Heartless and Nobodies are bad. Roxas is born from a kid who died, but ended up coming back to life. He owns a special key, but this organization is trying use it for themselves so they could get stronger. They kidnap him, trap in a place where they start messing with psyche, possibly giving him a mental breakdown, and putting him in a coma, and you need Roxas here to bring his memories back"

DiZ stared at Nero before chuckling.

"In simple terms, yes, I must tell you though, there are a multitude of worlds out there and you can't possibly get home yourselves, soooo…"

"We get it old man, you want us to help you, but after we do you're getting us out of here."

"Of course, now then, I have one more request." Nero groaned, he needed to get paid for doing all this bullshit.

"Because of the Organizations stubbornness, they will continue to send Dusk', and as you noticed yourselves, Roxas' fighting capabilities are….not the best."

"You want me to train him ?"

"Well of course, your friend here doesn't seem to use a sword like you, and the Keyblade is very much similar to your weapon." Nero breathed through his contemplating before giving in.

"Whatever, I just wanna get the hell out of here." DiZ thanked him, and before he left he told the both of them to not relay any of the information to Roxas, they just simply nodded in return, and with that he disappeared.

" Looks like we got more food dumped on our plate."

"It would seem so."

Hearing a groan behind them, they walked over to Roxas and helped him up.

"Time to wake up kid, cause your training starts today."

"For what ?" Roxas shivered when he saw Nero' evil smirk.

"You'll see soon enough."

After finding a secluded place and DiZ informing them that no one would find disturb them, V stood farther away as Nero started.

"Alright kid I want you to summon that weapon you had earlier." Nero was dearly hoping that Roxas' knew what he was talking about.

"I-I don't know how though, the only time it's ever appeared is when i'm in danger."

"Danger you say."

Roxas didn't even see Nero move, all he felt was pain. He nearly threw up his lunch when Nero punched him in his stomach. He stumbled backwards, but kept his feet planted on the ground. He looked up only to widen his eyes in fear when he saw him approaching, without even realizing it, he slashed forward with the Keyblade appearing in his hands. Nero couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

'It really is just a giant Key.'

Roxas heaved as he tried to control his breathing and his stomach.

"You didn't have to punch me in the gut, that was a cheap shot!"

"It made it appear didn't it."

"I guess, but-"

"No buts kid, let's just get started, now show me your stance." After doing what Nero commanded, Nero facepalmed, V smirked, and Roxas blushed deeply.

'This is gonna be a long day.'

* * *

 **Sorry I'm adding too much detail into everything, i'm gonna try and stop doing it so much, so I could try and get the story moving at a faster pace.**


	5. Chapter 5

Roxas groaned as he walked down the stairs towards the Sandlot, after the "training" Nero gave him the previous day, his arms and legs became completely sore. It took him almost an hour to get home, and it wasn't even a mile away. Shaking his head, he prepared himself for the Struggle Tournament, it was about to start and he couldn't allow himself to get distracted, even with all the strange events happening in the town. As he finally made it down the stairs, he looked around the Sandlot, the middle of it was no longer empty, it was replaced with a large wooden arena with banners on the side reading out "Struggle" with the emblem and trophy decorating it. There was also banners all over most of the buildings with the same thing drawn on them, they were just vertical. After the fireworks went off in the background, the plump, middle-aged announcer walked on stage. As the announcer started hyping everyone up, with both Roxas', Hayner and Seifer' friends, cheering on their respective friends. They were interrupted by a chorus of excited female voices.

"Setzerrr!" The announced turned around and noticed Setzer lazily waving his wand towards the audience, clearing his throat he turned back around and rose his voice.

"Yes, the crowd is fired up, so you know what comes next: Let's…...STRUGGLE!" The cheers grew even louder than before and the tournament officially started.

* * *

Nero and V listened as a new announcer listed off the combatants, Seifer, Roxas, Hayner, and to everyone' surprise Vivi. V eye's narrowed on the strange child.

"Nero, that child, Vivi, he feels…..corrupted. Like something has taken control over him."

"It's a Nobody." Both V and Nero turned towards Griffon for an explanation.

"While you two were busy taking your beauty sleep, I went ahead and decided to check if any more Demons came for us. Low and behold, I noticed one of those slippery bastards morph itself into that kid." They both listened and came to a conclusion.

"When that thing shows its true form, we kill it."

"Very well." With that done they both turned back around.

* * *

As time progressed, the number of fighters started to dwindle and it was time to start the real match. Both Roxas and Hayner stepped up and couldn't help but give each other challenging grins.

"You better not be a sore loser once I beat you, Roxas."

"That's my line."

With that the match started and the two best friends Struggled. Hayner' eyes widened when he felt the strength behind Roxas' swings. Gritting his teeth, he sent a multitude of jabs, to his annoyance, they were either blocked or batted aside. He tried to attack with an overhead swing, only for it to get parried. Hayner grit his teeth even more when Roxas rushed him and started hammering him with all sorts of attacks. Before he knew it, the match was over, his eyes widened when he felt himself on the ground, with no orbs on his person.

"AND THE WINNER IS ROXAS!" The announcer shout out, as Roxas rose his left fist into the air, smiling while doing so. As the announcer continued talking, Roxas went over to Hyaner and helped him up.

"You're not gonna be a sore loser now, are you ?" Roxas teased.

"Shut it, wise guy." Hayner responded with a grin.

"Let's go get some Ice-Cream after all of this is over." Hayner' expression immediately brightened and quickly agreed. After a getting of stage the next matched started, Seifer vs Vivi.

As Nero and V watched the battle, they noticed Seifer struggling to even defend himself from Vivi' assault,which was understandable, after he managed to hit Vivi once though, he thought he was triumphant and tried to reach a fallen orb, only to get knocked out. After Vivi won, Seifer stomped away with Rai and Fuu following after him.

"Alright everyone, the match you've all been waiting for…..ROXAS VS VIVI."

* * *

Nero and V stood up straight, preparing for the worst.

As the matched started, Vivi did the same as he did with Roxas, he charged forward with quick and lethal strikes, trying to take him down quickly. After blocking a strike that would've surely knocked him out, he feinted a strike towards Vivi legs, and quickly lashed out with a strong jab, and hit Vivi right in the face, sending him flying near the edge of the stage. Roxas stood there panting, hoping it was over, only to freeze when saw Vivi' body morphing into one of the strange creatures. He looked around and noticed that time stopped, freezing everyone with the exception of Nero, V, and himself. He jumped when he noticed the Struggle bat was replaced with the strange weapon from before. Shaking his head, he got into a stance, and prepared himself for a fight.

Nero and V watched as Roxas stood his ground and defeated more and more Nobodies just by himself.

"It seems your training helped."

"Good, cause I was self-taught, and I wasn't sure if it was gonna be any good for Roxas."

As Roxas finished the last of them, he panted and nearly fell on his knees from exhaustion, only to snap his head upwards when he heard clapping. The culprit was a tall lanky man, wearing the same the same black cloak as the guy who stole his munny.

" . .Fight." The stranger complimented, as he walked towards Roxas, who narrowed his eyes in response. "You really don't remember ? It's me. You know, Axel."

"Axel ?"

"Talk about blank with a capital "B". Even the Dusk won't be able to crack this one." With that, Axel' hands started to produce fire, before the flames turned into two large spiky Chakrams.

"Wait a second, tell me what's going on ?!"

"This town is his creation, right ? Which means we don't have time for a Q & A. You're coming with me, conscious or not." As Axel was preparing to attack, the world started to shift, but even worse than before. Axel' eyes widened and a small drops of sweat appeared on the left side of his face.

'What is this power, I don't recognize it at all.'

Before Roxas could voice out his confusion and frustration, Nero quickly revealed himself.

"ROXAS, GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!" While warning him, he quickly sent out a wire and wrapped it around Roxas' arm and pulling him towards himself. If he had been a second late, Roxas would've been cleaved in half, because the Demon that landed in his former spot was Nelo Angelo.

" **Spardaaa…."** It growled out as it got into a battle stance, surrounding it were three Frost Demons and a Death Scissors hovering above them.

"W-what are those things ?!" Roxas questioned in fear, he was noticeably terrified with his breathing coming out a much faster faster pace.

"Those ugly bastards are Demons." Nero responded, with V standing beside him with his two familiars. "Roxas I want you to listen to me, I want you to control your breathing and to prepare yourself, cause the things from earlier are nothing compared to these guys, cause they're not leaving any leftovers." He turned towards Axel and asked him.

"You gonna run away, or you want a piece to ?"

"Yeah right, these things are just fodder I could take care of them myself if I wanted to." He responded cockily, but Nero still heard the unsureness in his voice, but simply nodded.

"Alright then." He removed Red Queen from his back and revved it up. "Time to kick some ass." With that they charged forward, with the Demons doing the same.

Axel quickly dodged to the right, as the Frost Demon in front of him froze the moisture in the air, and launched Ice Spears right at him.

"Sorry but I don't have time to deal with something like you, BURN!" He threw both of his flaming Chakrams towards the demon, and before it could harm it, it surround itself in ice in the shape of a diamond. After retrieving his Chakrams, the demon charged at him with speed he didn't expect, with its ice claws, it repeatedly started slashing him, not giving a chance to counterattack, or recover. Quickly ducking another slash, which took off some of his red hair, with his right Chakram he swung it upward, cutting off its left arm, Axel smirked when it growled, only to be launched back when it retaliated by punching him in the chest with is shielded right arm. Axel heaved as he tried to regain his breath, and trying to ignore the pain.

'Damn, I didn't expect to be this strong.' That's when he noticed it slowly regenerating its lost limb.

'I have to finish this quick.' With that, he charged forward and launched his left flaming Chakram, and as expected it dodged back, not losing his momentum he circled around it and with some additional strength, he pierced it through its back with his remaining Chakram, and finished it off with a burst of flames. Axel backed off with one final remark.

"Fire always beats ice, got it memorized ?"

Roxas was nearly knocked down, when he blocked the Frost Demons slash.

'I-it's even stronger than those other creatures.' He quickly jumped back ,allowing its claws to leave deep claw marks on the arena. Before he could gather his bearings, it teleported away, and appeared behind him and slashed his back. Roxas screamed out in pain when he felt its claws digging into his back, collapsing on the ground, he quickly rolled away when multiple Ice Spears nearly pierced him. Standing up, his breath was coming out quick and heavy, his legs were shaking, and he was absolutely terrified. With the other creatures, they were easy to maneuver around, but with it using both Ice and Teleportation, he wasn't sure he stood a chance. He witnessed its strength first hand and knew he couldn't easily overpower it. Before either of them could make a move, a bolt of red lightning struck it and it roared in anger and pain.

"Hey kid what the hell are you doing !? Quit standing around and fight."

He looked up towards V' pet bird and couldn't believe it was talking. He quickly shook his head though, it was right, he couldn't just stand around and allow himself to be killed. With resolve, he started attacking the Demon with his Keyblade. Thanks to Griffon' interference, its movements were much slower, so he started to attack it without holding back, using his strength in all of his attacks, he noticed it starting to get become more damaged. The ice on the Demon started to break apart and blood stained its ice armor. Growling, it released some of its coldness into the ground and large Ice Spikes appeared from the ground. Roxas would've been killed if it wasn't for Griffon grabbing him by the back of his shirt and pulling him away. Roxas, completely exhausted, fell onto one knee and breathed heavily. His vision was getting blurry and he couldn't think straight.

"Shit!, I didn't think the wound was this bad." He heard Griffon exclaim. Before the Frost Demon could finish him off, V appeared behind it and stabbed it through the chest with his cane, swiping to the right, ending its existence. After finishing it off, he quickly walked towards Roxas and started healing him with his magic to the best of his ability. With Shadow by his side it was a stroll through the park finishing off his own Frost Demon. With Shadow able to extend itself, and turning its body into a spike flail, and summoning spikes from the shadows from the ground it was a hard battle. After healing Roxas, he moved away from the battle.

Nero stared at the Nelo Angelo, it was obviously targeting him specifically with the way it kept glaring at him.

"What's the matter big fella, it's not like I did anything to hurt your feelings, right ?"

The Demons response was charging forward, and swinging its large broadsword from the right. Nero rose Red Queen, blocking the attack. After that they both started swinging their blades, sparks flying all over the place, trying to gut each other, Nelo Angelo rose it sword into the air and swung down. Only to be blocked by Nero' Buster Breaker.

"Is that all you've got ?"

Growling it lashed out with its right foot, only to hit nothing but air. Nero aimed with Blue Rose, and shot all three charged shots, hitting their target. It was clear the Demon was really pissed off with it yelling

" **SPARDA!** "

It thrusted forward with its broadsword, blinded by its rage it didn't notice Nero dodging and circling around, only noticing when he felt a pair of arms around him. Performing a German Suplex on the demon with his Buster Breaker, he then proceeded delivering drop kick it its face when it tried getting up. As he walked over to Nelo Angelo, he stomped on its chest. Spinning Red Queen in his left hand, he stabbed its chest, he heard it, trying to hold its roar of pain, but it didn't have much time to think about it.

"Time to go home freak-show." He revved up Red Queen, and Nelo Angelo let out its final roar of pain before Nero moved his sword upwards, cleaving its head and half, and burning the shit out of it. Nero' eyes narrowed on its bloody burning carcass.

'More and more just keep coming, and were not even in our own universe, that bastard Urizen is trying to make sure we don't come back.' Nero thought with gritted teeth. He looked up towards his allies, and breathed a sigh of relief. Roxas was slowly getting back up, albeit with shaky legs, but he looked fine. As expected with Shadow by his side, V was gonna be hard to take down. He then turned towards Axel and narrowed.

"Alright toothpick, what's your reasoning for crashing our party." Axel sputtered in response.

"T-TOOTHPICK, YOU'VE GOT A LOT OF NERVE." Axel yelled in anger before calming down. "I'm here to take Roxas, sorry pal but there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"We'll just see about that."

Axel' eyes widened before he spun around, only to have the handle of a cane wrap around his neck and pull him towards his assailant. V' knee snapped up and struck Axel directly under his chin, Axel groaned in pain before attacking with his Chakrams, with Griffon floating next to Roxas, V quickly teleported back towards their position. Axel massaged his sore jaw before turning towards V, but he was looking specifically at Roxas.

"Number 13, Roxas. The Keyblade's chosen one."

"So you're a Nobody, huh ? If you're wondering how we know that, let's just say a bandaged birdie told us a couple secrets." Axel grit his teeth, he knew exactly who Nero was talking about. They all turned when they heard a strange noise, only for DiZ to be the source.

"So it was you." Axel calmly stated before jumping back and lighting up his Chakrams, he reared them back before tossing them towards DiZ. DiZ didn't even flinch when they bounced off the invisible barrier surrounding him.

"Roxas, this man speaks nonsense!"

"Roxas, don't let him deceive you."

As the both of them started to repeatedly call his name, Roxas placed his hands on his ears to block their voices, but he could still hear them loud and clear. After nearly dying he was already completely stressed out and his young mind couldn't take all of it. Tears were threatening to come out of his eyes, before they snapped open when he heard to large cracks. He looked towards Nero and saw him lowering Blue Rose.

"Sorry, but I don't want to see a kid having a mental breakdown, especially after he nearly died, so I recommend the both of you to get the hell out of here before I make you." Nero threatened with his eyes having a small red glow. Axel hesitated before he relented.

"Fine, but don't think I'm not coming back, I still got a mission to do." Axel turned around and summoned a Corridor Of Darkness, but his expression turned grim as he took one quick glance at Roxas before walking inside.

"You did not have to interfere." DiZ spoke out.

"I'm not gonna ask again you again, you damn geezer, GET OUT OF HERE!"

DiZ remained in his position before teleporting away in bright flash of numbers. Nero ran his hand through his hair before walking towards Roxas.

"You alright kid ?"

"Y-yeah I think I am, thanks Nero." Nero smirked, before ruffling his blonde hair, with his left hand of course. Roxas blushed at the gesture, but didn't do anything to stop it. Nero turned towards V and ruffled his hair as well only for it to get smacked away. Nero couldn't help but laugh with Roxas and Griffon joining him, and V' lips twitched before turning into a small smile. Shadow looked at them all before shrugging and laying next to V' leg. As their laughter died down, Nero asked Roxas if he was okay, and he simply nodded. Asking for one more confirmation, they walked off the stage and sat back down their seats. Roxas stood back up to his full height, and time resumed once again, cheering filled his ears, and he looked at the downed Vivi.

"What? What just happened?" The announcer asked through the speakers. As Vivi got up, he looked around and asked himself how he got there, shrugging, he walked away looking for his friends. Running past him were Roxas' own friends, when they reached Roxas they all started congratulating him, but he didn't look happy or proud just…...tired.

After they allowed Roxas to take a small break, he watched as Setzer walked on stage and everyone started cheering him on. After taking a couple deep breaths, he walked on stage and accepted the struggle bat from the announcer.

"You two, play fair now. You're at the top of the bracket."

"There's only room for one up here." Setzer arrogantly remarked.

"Well, may the best man win!" The announcer spoke with a nervous chuckle. As the announcer walked away, Setzer turned towards Roxas.

"Hey Rucksa-"

"Piss off Setzer." Setzer looked taken back along with the audience, especially his friends. Roxas blushed deep in embarrassment before quickly getting into a battle stance, though it didn't help that he could hear Nero' laughter.

* * *

"You're becoming a bad influence on him."

"I know."

* * *

After Roxas whooped Setzer' ass and being congratulated by everyone, he rose the Struggle belt into the air and the cheering grew even louder. He looked at everyone and smiled, but when his eyes landed on Nero and V, it grew even bigger a sign of thanks and appreciation.

"Looks like it worked out for the kid." Nero remarked as he waved at Roxas.

"Yes, but for how long, he will have to know the truth sooner or later."

Nero flinched at that, he really didn't want to tell the kid that his entire his life was a lie, but he knew it had to be done. He watched as Roxas and his friends started walking away, most likely to celebrate.

"Let's go make sure the kid doesn't end up getting mugged, with a trophy like that he could probably pay off Dante's debt."

As Roxas and his friends sat on top of the clock tower, Roxas marveled at the trophy before he decided to take off the yellow crystal. After tossing it towards Olette, who nearly dropped it in surprise, he gave Hayner the Orange one and Pence the green one. Roxas held up his blue one and watched it as it reflected the sun's light.

"As promised."

"Thanks a ton, Roxas!"

"One more treasure for us to share."

As they held up their respective crystal balls, Olette reached behind her and revealed a special surprise, some Sea-Salt Ice-Cream

"I've got a present too...for all of us." The rest of them looked at her with smiles, and got Roxas got a little TOO happy since he stood up and tripped. Roxas nearly fell of the clock tower only to feel someone grab him back the back of his jacket. He looked behind him and he wished he didn't.

Nero scowled as he pulled Roxas back and gave him an intense glare.

"You mind telling me why you almost went free falling."

Roxas answer was some incoherent mumbling.

"What was that ?" Nero asked as he got closer, Roxas flinched and spoke louder.

"Olette brought some Ice-Cream, and I got a little too excited." Nero rubbed his temples and sighed. He looked at Roxas for a couple seconds before grabbing V's cane and whacked him on the top of his head.

"OW?!" Roxas started to massage his sore head, while trying to make sure he didn't cry.

"Look Roxas, there's a difference between being dumb and being an absolute retard, and you're heading straight towards the latter." Roxas blushed in embarrassment, while looking down at his feet. "And because of the, you've lost your Ice-Cream privileges." Roxas looked completely horrified as Nero took his Ice-Cream and licked it…..only to retract his tongue in disgust.

'How do people eat this shit.' He gave it to V who held it awkwardly.

"Look Roxas I just want you to know that if I wasn't here it could've ended a lot worse, and I mean alot WORSE." He emphasized. Roxas flinched, but nodded in understanding.

"Good, after you kiddies are done celebrating, you better get going home, before I do it myself." and with that Nero retreated towards the stairs leading back to the first floor. The kids watched as V looked at the Ice-Cream before licking it, he nodded in approval before following Nero while eating his new treat. Roxas, Hayner, and Pence jumped when they heard a thump and looked towards Olette.

Only to see her passed out red faced with blood dripping out of her nose.

* * *

The next day Roxas woke up with a groan, the memory of speaking with Kairi still fresh in his mind, he remembered walking home and blacking out, and speaking to this voice, one he's never heard before. She wanted to know Sora' name but he just couldn't say it outloud, it's as if he wasn't allowed to. The last thing he remembered was another voice answering for him. Shaking his head, he ate some breakfast, took a shower, brushed his teeth and made his way towards the Usual Spot.

DiZ looked at all the monitors in front of him, making sure he was up to pace with everything concerning the worlds and Roxas.

"His progress is astounding." Riku listened as he threw the blue crystal ball, previously owned by Roxas, into the air catching it. Grabbing it he turned towards DiZ.

"So what happened ?"

"Namine's encounter with Roxas put his heart in contact with Kairi's. And that in term affected Sora. You see ?" Riku's eyes widened at the the information.

"Namine…. She's a wonder."

"She wasn't born like other Nobodies. She can interfere with the hearts and memories of Sora and those aligned with him."

"But whose Nobody is she ?"

"I could tell you...But first, perhaps you could tell me your true name ?" Riku didn't hesitate as he removed his hood.

"It's Ansem." DiZ looked at him curiously before chuckling, full blown laughing.

"It's an honor, Ansem!"

* * *

As Axel walked through the streets of the World That Never Was, the memory of having to eliminate Roxas, his best friend, was still fresh on his mind.

'C'mon Roxas, remember already I don't want to do this.'

"Hey Axel!" Axel froze and prepared himself for a fight, only to see Demyx running towards him.

"Demyx ? Didn't think I'd see you running around here."

"Me neither, but staying in that castle all day is really boring, everyone else is either too busy or too boring to anything exciting."

Axel smirked, even with the tough times they were in, Demyx was always his usual upbeat self.

"So where did ya raun off to Axel ?" Axel's smirk fell and it was replaced with a small frown.

"I went to go see Roxas, and…..it looks like he's not coming back." Demyx flinched at the revelation, he knew the two of them were best friends and it must have been a real punch to the gut when he was assigned to eliminate his best bud.

"I'm sorry to hear that Axel."

Don't be sorry Demyx it's not your fault, it just happens."

"...Are you really thinking of leaving the Organization ?"

"...Yeah…"

"Well you better get out of here quick, Saix is already suspicious as it is."

"Thanks Demyx."

Demyx just smiled. "No need for thanks, were friends right, go on get out here I'll try and keep them off your back."

Axel nodded and opened a Corridor of Darkness, he gave Demyx one last nod of thanks and left.

Demyx's smile fell as Axel disappeared.

'Wish I was brave like you Axel, I'm just too…..scared.' With that he walked down the path back to castle, while strumming his Sitar.

* * *

After making plans with his friends to finish the summer assignment they decided to take on the "Seven wonders of Twilight Town." As they made it to the Station Plaza they noticed Nero, and V leaning against the stone railing talking to each other. That's when Olette excitedly waved towards them, specifically Nero.

"Hey Nero, you wanna go to Sunset Terrace with us ?"

"Do you think she has a crush on him ?'

"Definitely."

Nero rose a white eyebrow at the unfamiliar name. "Sunset Terrace ?"

"Yeah, it's another part of Twilight Town, since you've never gone there and we have a summer assignment to finish, we could do both at the same time so….how about it ?"

Nero thought for a second and looked at V for confirmation, who just shrugged in response.

"Why not, anything's better than looking at the sun all day."

"GREAT!" Olette shouted, she grabbed onto his left arm and led him towards the station. Nero awkwardly smiled before allowing himself to be dragged away. The rest of the males looked at each other before following.

Nero had to resist to pull his arm away from Olette's vice grip. Even though he knew she wasn't real, he still didn't want to seem like an ass. As they all sat on the train towards Sunset Terrace, Nero decided to ask a question.

"So why're you kids heading towards this place." Olette sighed and released Nero's arm, much to his relief and explained.

"Well, after school ended we were assigned some summer homework, but these slacker decided it was best just to wait until the end of summer."

"Hey, were not slackers, summer just ended too quickly, right guys…right ?" As Hayner was defending himself, he looked towards Roxas and Pence, only for them to be turned away.

'Oh great, she's gonna start nagging.' And she did…for the rest of the train ride.

As they finally made it, Olette finished her rant on how they lazy and useless they were when it came to school work. The rest of them were just happy they could finally stretch their legs, as they were getting up, Hayner ran out of the train and told her to quit her nagging, and to hurry it up. Clenching her teeth in anger, she quickly ran after him.

"I WAS NOT NAGGING!" Was all they heard before Hayner started screaming like a girl.

"Well, were here, so what're you kids doing for your assignment, we might be able to help." 'And possibly take care of anything Demon or Heart related.'

"Well, we decided to check out the Seven Wonders, which are seven strange phenomenons that could be encountered here. Like this one, The Spooky Steps, according to rumor, the number of steps on the staircase leading to the train station changes between going up and down. There's only one problem though…..Rai was the one who counted so it's probably just bogus." Pence explained.

"Yeah that kid didn't seem like the brightest bulb. So what are the other six." Pence then showed them a map where every single Wonder could be encountered. Nero rubbed the stubble on his chin before telling them his plan.

"Alright this is how we'll do it, Pence you stay back, so when one of us check back with you, you could just mark it off." Pence nodded, glad he didn't have to do too much work. "V you check The Moans From the Tunnel." V nodded as well, already thinking their maybe more trouble to deal with. "Roxas you check out The Friend From Beyond the Wall and the Doppleganger, and I'll check out the Animated Bag, everyone good with their objectives ?" They all looked at each other and nodded. "Alright, let's get this show on the road." With that they all split up.

* * *

Roxas walked towards the strange wall in an alleyway, as he was getting close, a giant ball zoomed past him, cutting off some of his hair. He quickly dodged side to side as more and more were being thrown. With quick thinking he dashed towards the wall, and smashed his shoulder against it. As he hissed in pain, he noticed some of the white creatures, teleporting into the wall.

'So they were the ones throwing them.'

Shaking his head, he walked out of the alley and met up with Pence.

"Oh it's just you Roxas. Were you throwing a ball ? That ball flew out of nowhere and startled me." Roxas opened his mouth to explain but closed it, if he told Pence it was some sort of white creature, he would assume he was crazy.

"No, it was just a bunch of kids pulling a little prank." He explained with a sigh, hoping he sounded believable.

"Oh…..that's pretty disappointing, well we still got five more, hopefully one of them is the real deal." And they split up once again, Roxas headed towards the waterfall, expecting to see his own "doppelganger"

* * *

V walked through the large tunnel, as he walked further in the moans got louder. Griffon sat on his shoulder and questioned him.

"You think it's one of those Nobodies or maybe even Demons ?"

"No, I already know the answer, it's one of the simulated humans and they seem to be wanting a fight."

"Well let's give them one they'll never forget."

As they walked to a secluded area of the tunnel they noticed "Vivi" standing there with a Struggle Bat. V walked up to him and rose his Cane, similar to that of a sword. That's when it multiplied into three, V simply watched as they walked towards him. Jabbing his cane forward, he pierced the middle one through the chest, killing it in one strike, after it disappeared into a flash of green colors, the other two struck, but he lashed out with a kick and an elbow bash. Both of them did the same thing as the last one, that's when ten more appeared and surround him.

"I do not have time to waste on fodder like you."

He then teleported all around them, destroying all of them in a matter of seconds. As he was about to walk out of the area he felt a Dusk behind him. Turning around he noticed it still disguised as Vivi, not even bothering he chucked his Cane and pierced it through its chest, making it disappear into white particles. He couldn't help but chuckle at how easy it was, all that was heard in the tunnel was a malicious chuckle, promising pain to those in his way.

* * *

As Roxas walked up to the waterfall he noted how small it was but still pleasant to look, he looked at his reflection on the water…...before it walked out and through him. Roxas jumped in surprise and turned around. He watched as reflection turned towards and turned into an inky black color, it got into to the same stance as his and readied its own version of a Struggle Sword. Roxas narrowed his eyes and did the same. He couldn't help but smirk

'This is gonna be easy.'

'It wasn't easy' He thought to himself with a groan. He laid on the ground and relayed the fight, it was much tougher than he expected, with it knowing all of his moves and, to his annoyance, performed them better.

'At Least it's over.' Getting up he dusted off his pants before noticing Pence walking up to him.

"Hey Roxas, I just talked to V." Pence shivered at the memory, V wasn't easy to talk to like Nero, he was much more serious and spoke in few words, and the way he stared at him, like a hawk stalking its prey, terrified him. "He told me it was nothing but some dog barking at some rats, though it didn't sound like it. Anyways, have you found anything ?" He asked with a some desperation in his voice.

"Nope, sorry Pence, just people exaggerating the story again."

"Oh…well let's wait on Nero, maybe he has something….hopefully." Pence responded in disappointment.

As they walked up Sunset Hill, they both thought the same thing.

'Please, please, please, have something.'

* * *

Nero watched as the bag moved around a bit, before he stabbed it with Red Queen, making the Nobody inside disappear.

"That sucks, eh, those kids probably have an entire paper already written."

* * *

"You don't have anything written down."

"N-no, we were hoping you'd have something but…"

"Buuuuut, we have a lead." Hayner responded with pure confidence.

"What type of lead ?"

"The Ghost Train Mystery, we could see it pass by on Sunset Hill, come on." Once again she grabbed Nero by the arm and dragged him towards the top, with the rest of their companions following along.

"If the rumors are true, it'll be here any minute..." Hayner spoke with little hope in his voice.

"For they say the train is empty. No driver, no conductor, no passengers…..no return." As Pence tried to give them the heebie jeebies, they all looked over the wooden fence, and looked around the train tracks hoping for the train to passing by already. Nero sighed and ran his hand through his white and flopped down on the ground, with the others doing same, except for V who continued to stand and look at the tracks.

After what felt like hours, five minutes in reality, they continued to laze around hoping it wasn't just another bogus story.

"We gotta make it to the beach next year." Her friends nodded while Nero and V didn't bother answering.

"Yeah. We better get jobs the second vacation starts."

"Good afternoon, slackers. What are you doing out here ?" As Seifer made himself know Roxas and Hayner prepared for a fight, Olette was busy looking at Nero, who looked very uncomfortable, Pence yawned while scratching his stomach, and V was reading a book, with the cover only having a large V in the middle.

"What are you doing out here ?" Seifer asked.

"What do you care ?"

"I don't. Tell me anyway."

Nero and V blinked.

"We're waiting for the ghost train." Pence answered with his 'spooky' voice.

"Waiting for the ghost train!" Seifer mocked as he proceeded to laugh. Gritting his teeth, Roxas got up and prepared himself to fight. Seifer sneered as he looked at Roxas.

"Why does looking at you always tick me off ?" The rest of Roxas' friends stood up as well. Meanwhile Nero was on the verge of falling asleep and V scratched the top of Griffon's head, with the latter closing his eyes in satisfaction.

"I dunno. Maybe it's destiny." Seifer just looked at him with a blank expression before shaking his head.

"Destiny...In that case let's be friends." He then turned around looking towards the sun, with everyone else doing the same. Nero immediately flinched and turned back around. "I don't feel like cooperating with destiny."

"When have you ever cooperated with anything ?" Hayner asked in genuine curiosity. Seifer just turned back towards them and hit his chest with his fist. He gave out one last cocky grin and walked away.

"Seifer ?"

"I know."

Roxas watched as Seifer left and looked back towards the tracks. That's when he heard it, a train.

"Look!" Nero jumped as he tried to keep himself awake, while V was still scratching the top of Griffon's head. Roxas' friends looked concerned when he seem so invested to finding the train. Going through the tracks was a bright purple train, decorated with stars and moons, even the windows were shaped like stars. On the top was a magicians hat, decorated the same as the rest of the train.

"It's really true...And there's really no one on aboard. What the catch ? There's gotta be a catch, right ?" The rest of his friends looked at each other not knowing what to say. "Then it's real ?! Let's go to the station." With that he ran off, his friends quickly ran after him not too far behind.

"Nero…"

"H-huh, what ?"

"That train, it actually arrived."

"Stop bullshitting me V, we both know this whole thing was just a hoax."

"I'm being serious."

"You're always serious." V gave him a blank stare before walking back towards the station. Nero sighed and logged behind him.

* * *

"Huh, guess you were telling the truth." V shook his head and watched as Roxas tried boarding the train only to be stopped by Hayner.

"What ?!"

"Um…you'll get hurt." Roxas ignored him and turned back around only to be completely shocked. The ghost train….it was gone.

"Huh?"

"The train will be arriving shortly." A normal Twilight Town train screeched to a stop, right in front of them. With pedestrians walking out, two of them being Rai and Fuu. Nero caught Fuu staring at him only for her to quickly turn away with a blush.

"Hey Fuu, your face is red we could get you some medicine, y'know." Her response was elbowing his stomach, knocking the air out of him.

"C'mon let's just go home." Pence spoke with disappointment filling his voice.

"A train came from the beach. There was no driver, right ?"

"Roxas, let's just go."

"Right !?" Olette flinched when he rose his voice. Before Hayner could start pushing Roxas into the train, Nero walked up to Roxas.

"C'mon kid, it's getting late, I'm pretty sure you guys are tired and disappointed." They all looked up to Nero and each gave their own nod.

"Nero, did yo-"

"I did kid, but there's nothing we could do now." Roxas sighed in disappointment before entering the train.

* * *

As they left Central Station, they were all talking about what to do next, as Pence put it "The rumors were bogus. The end."

"We can still make it sound good if we write about all the work we did." Olette suggested. Roxas followed them before stopping.

"But what about the one- the seventh wonder?"

"Who cares ?!" Hayner asked in frustration

"I do. C'mon Pence." Hayner clenched his fist before leaving with a "whatever".

"Roxas...can't you jus-"

"Don't worry kid, we'll make sure he doesn't do anything to get himself killed." Olette looked up toward Nero before nodding and walked back home. "Alright Pence, where's it at."

"...It's at that haunted mansion." They nodded and followed after him.

As they walked through the hole in the Tram Common wall, and traversed themselves through the woods. As they made it to the front gate, they all looked up towards the large building.

"This is it, huh?"

"Yeah, we were gonna come check tomorrow, but since Roxas 'insisted' we come, I guess we had no choice."

"What is the mystery behind this mansion ?" Pence couldn't help but shiver when V looked towards him.

"W-well, they say there's a girl who appears at the second floor window...even though no one's lived here for years. As they all looked upwards, they saw her, the same blonde haired girl from before. She was staring at them, more specifically Roxas.

* * *

Roxas opened his eyes, expecting to be in front of the mansion, only to be inside of it. He blinked and looked around, he noticed he was in a completely white room decorated with few furniture. A table with two chairs, a nightstand, and a desk. The only colors present were pictures drawn with crayons, he looked at one picture specifically, it was…...well at least he thought it was him he couldn't really tell, only by the spiky blonde hair. Next to him was someone with large spiky red hair.

"Roxas…"

"Namine? This is…me? And Axel's here too."

"You ARE best friends…"

"Very funny."

"Don't you want to know the truth about who you really are ?"

"No one knows me better than me."

"Of course…"

"But...I don't get what's been happening lately." He then looked towards his right, and looked at one specific picture. A spiky haired boy, with a cartoony looking dog and duck.

"You know these three, don't you?"

"Yeah. Sora, Donald, and Goofy. They're from the dreams."

"A year ago…something's happened and I had to take apart the memories chained together in Sora's heart. But now...I'm putting them all back exactly the way they were. It's taken me a long time, but pretty soon Sora will be his old self again. The process has been affecting you, too, Roxas.

"You mean, the dreams?"

"Yes. You and Sora are connected. And...in order for Sora to be completely whole again...He needs you."

"Me ? What for ?"

"You hold half of what he is...He needs you, Roxas." He was blinded by a bright flash of light and found himself seated across Namine.

"Namine...who are you?" Namine gave him a sad smile before answering.

"I'm a witch with power over Sora's memories and those around him."

"A witch ?" Namine hesitated before answering.

"That's what DiZ called me. But I don't know why I have this power… I just do. I'm not even sure there's a right way to use it."

"Hmm...I can't help you there." He responded with small smile, with her doing the same thing.

"It's funny...Suddenly I feel like don't know myself at all...I guess I would like to know. What do you know about me...that I don't ?"

"You...you were never supposed to exist, Roxas." Roxas was to say the least, completely taken back.

"W-what ? How could you even say such a thing...even it were true."

"I'm sorry. I guess some things... really are best left unsaid."

* * *

Roxas jumped when he felt something poking his cheek, he turned around to see Nero poking him with a stick.

"Oh, so he is alive." Roxas shook his head and thought back to what just happened.

'Was that part of the dreams as well or did I really experience.'

"So Roxas did you see her ?" Pence asked curiously.

"Yeah. Watch the window- closely." Pence, looked up and deflated.

"Oh, lame. That's just the curtains moving. There must be a draft somewhere. I'm surprised this place even has curtains."

"...Yeah." Roxas looked the same place, and still saw her. It's like he was the only one able to see her.

"Well, let's head back to the Usual Spot. Hayner and Olette are waiting. Hey Nero, you wanna come with us ?"

"Nah, we're gonna stay here a bit longer, see if we could find anything of interest."

"Alright then, see you later you two." As Pence and Roxas walked away, they gave their final goodbyes.

* * *

After the two of them finally disappeared, Nero and V looked at each other before jumping the fence. As they walked towards the wooden double doors, Nero opened them, and they let out a large creak. As they walked in they noticed the place was completely empty, broken glass covered most of the floor, vases, art pieced, trophies they were thrown all over the floor. As they looked around, they both located a door on the second floor. Most likely the room they were looking for, nodding to each other they moved.

As they finally reached the door, Nero hesitated, V rose a dark eyebrow.

"Is something the matter ?" Nero looked towards him and asked him the dumbest question he's ever heard.

"What if she's changing ?" V just stared at him, before opening the door himself. As he walked inside, Nero peeked his head and looked inside, with a sigh of relief he entered and closed the door behind him. As they looked around the white room, V looked at a specific drawing and narrowed his eyes. It was the one with Roxas and Axel standing next to each other. But that wasn't what concerned him.

"These drawings are horrendous."

"Y-you can't just say that. That's very rude" They both turned to the other side of the room and noticed the blonde girl sitting on a chair, with a large pout adoring her features.

"Sorry about that, my friend here doesn't concern himself with other's feelings. So may I ask who you are ?" The girl regained her composure and responded.

"My name is Namine, and you two must be Nero and V."

"You know us ?"

"Yes, DiZ told me about you two, since he wanted to know where you two came from."

"Well that explains it…..so Namine what do you do here all day ?"

"...Nothing really, I'm just waiting for Sora to finally wake up."

"Sora huh…..guess everything is connected to that kid. So you just sit here all day, doing nothing ?"

"Y-yes that is correct, I see it as a fitting punishment for everything that I've done." After her response, her smile was replaced with a sad one.

"Sorry to hear that…...you think you could answer some questions for us ?" Namine hesitated, she quickly looked around before nodding her head.

"My first question is…..did DiZ ever tell you how we got here ?"

"Yes...he told me you three fell into his lab through a portal, the portal felt…...terrifying." She clenched the hem of her dress as she spoke about it.

"Can't blame you, those Demons are just scream evil…anyway do you have any powers that could possibly send us back home." Namine rose her eyebrow at the Demon part before shaking her head.

"...I'm sorry, my ability has nothing to do with portals or teleportation." Nero sighed before asking his next question.

"Can you tell us a way to get out of here, kinda like a loophole. We already know the place is nothing but a fake, so we were wondering if you knew." Before she could respond, DiZ arrived behind her and grabbed her shoulder.

"It would seem you two can't keep your noses clean." Nero grit his teeth in anger, they were so damn CLOSE.

"I'm not playing your games you damn geezer, just get us out of here and we'll be on our way."

"...No." Nero's scowl turned even more vicious than before and he could feel his anger growing. V quickly prepared himself to calm Nero if need be, he can't have them knowing their true strength.

"...What did you just say ?" DiZ felt a bead sweat rolling down his face as he felt the Darkness from the boy grow more and more. He felt Namine shaking, but kept her in place.

"You have not completed your missio-"

"I DON'T GIVE A **SHIT**." DiZ and Namine's eyes widened as they felt the full force of Nero's demonic power, they were just lucky they didn't feel Dante's. Nero's eyes flickered between red and blue as his anger grew.

" **Get us out of here, we've got problems of our own, and I'm not gonna stay here just to babysit some kid.** " Nero demanded with his voice sounding more demonic than human. V quickly grabbed his shoulder and whispered into his ear.

"Calm yourself, if you do not, we will have to overstay our welcome, and we don't time." Nero took deep breaths, before steadying his breathing.

"How much longer old man, my patience is running thin." DiZ took multiple deep breaths. He looked down towards Namine and saw her looking down with her eyes wide open with fear.

'This boy, he is no human.' He cleared his throat before responding.

"One more day, and then I will release you from this place."

"Good…..and sorry if I made you piss yourself kid." Namine froze and her face turned beet red.

"I-I DID NOT PEE MYSELF YOU…YOU…YOU MEANIE." Nero rose an eyebrow at the 'insult' before roaring with laughter.

"Whatever you say kid." As he and V walked out of the mansion, Namine continued to glare at her door with teary eyes and a giant pout. DiZ calmly looked at the door as well before smirking.

'I almost feel sorry for the Organization…..almost."

* * *

The next day arrived and Roxas got out of bed, he felt even more sluggish than usual, and he didn't know why. After doing his morning ritual he made his way towards the Usual spot.

As Nero and V walked through the streets, they noticed most people didn't even turn to look at them like they usually did. Nero's stomach growled and he headed towards the nearest food stand.

"Hey pal, give me a hotdog will ya." But Nero noticed something, the guy didn't even listen to what he said and just outright ignored him, growling he reached for the guys shoulder.

Only for it to completely phase through. His eyes widened and jumped back.

'What the hell...'

"Nero, Roxas is in trouble!" He turned towards his companion and quickly nodded, looks like they'll find their answers soon enough.

As they made it to Roxas's position, they heard him the familiar sound of a battle and quickly sped up.

As an Assassin jumped out of the ground, it nearly struck Roxas in the back before being shot down. Roxas' and Axel snapped their heads towards the origin of the sound and saw both Nero and V, Axel growled and summoned his Chakrams.

"I might as well finish the two of you off as well." As he rose his Chakrams to attack, he froze. They all blinked before they heard DiZ's voice.

"The three of you, to the mansion, quickly!"

'This is the last time I'm taking orders from you old man.' Nero thought to himself before they all ran towards the mansion. Along the way, they fought hordes of Nobodies, with two newer types joining the battle. A shapeshifter, which could turn into multitudes of weapons, and another which could dive into the ground similar to water. After fighting their way through, they made it to the front gates, Nero tried jumping the gate again, only to get pushed back by an invisible barrier.

"What the hell, that wasn't there before."

They all turned around and heard the Nobodies coming towards them.

"Old man jenkins decided to keep us off his yard this time, we have to find another way in." As Nero and V were thinking of just simply destroying the gate, Roxas rose his Keyblade and a beam of light shot from the tip. They all quickly ran in, the last thing they saw was the hooded man close the gate and fend off the Nobodies. As they walked in, more Nobodies started to appear

"Aren't these bastards tired of getting massacred." Nero revved up Red Queen before dashing forward, he performed a wide spread slash, killing most of the off.

"Go home already!" Roxas ran up the stairs, and headed towards Namine's room. "Damn it kid, what're you doing ?!"

"I have to talk to Namine." Was the only answer they got, Nero groaned.

'Is this kid serious.' He grabbed an Assassin rising from the ground with his Buster Breaker.

"Happy Birthday!" He waited for it to glow and then threw it at a group of Nobodies.

"Now make a wish!" V summoned Shadow and watched as it massacred the Nobodies by simply growing it claws and slashing away. Griffon flew around the mansion, zapping any Nobody he saw with Lightning balls. As they continued to fight, they heard Roxas start screaming.

"Shit!, V let's go." As Nero Air Hike'd up to the second floor, V grabbed on to Griffons talons and he flew the both of them up there. As they burst into the room, they saw him picking up some sketch book with a yellow crayon. "This isn't the time to doodle kid." Roxas didn't respond to his remark though, he just stared at the ground. And asked a question they were both dreading.

"You guys…...knew the whole time ?" Nero looked at Roxas before speaking.

"Look ki-"

"Why…?"

"Huh ?"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ?!" Nero's eyes widened when saw the kid's eyes, they were filled with nothing but fear and betrayal.

'Shit….'

"They told me everything…how you just thought I was some dumb kid to babysit…..this entire time you knew this town was nothing but a fake…..you even know what I truly am…yet you didn't say anything…..why ?" Roxas started with nothing but anger in his voice, but it quickly turned into one of sadness. He was nothing but a crying mess now, questioning his own existence. Nero watched as Roxas cried, he wasn't some strong Devil Hunter like him, who faced death more than once. He was just some kid finding out he was never supposed to exist, and that his entire life was a lie. Nero walked up to Roxas and slowly wrapped him into a hug. Roxas eyes widened at the gesture, before he even knew it he started to cry even more. The first time he felt contact with another real being that wasn't trying to kill him or attack him, only one hug, all it took was one hug and Roxas broke.

"I'm sorry Roxas….I didn't want to hurt you…...I just wanted to help you out, I didn't want to tell you because I knew it would truly hurt you. I just wanted to return home as soon as possible because I'm…..scared.

"Y-you're scared ?"

"Yeah, before we got here, we were fighting someone who had the power to destroy our entire world. A friend of mine, Dante, who's stronger than you could even imagine, was defeated with one punch. And I'm worried that if we don't go back home everything we know and love…..could be taken away." Roxas listened to Nero's story with his face still buried into his chest. Roxas nodded in understanding, before hesitantly pulling away from Nero. Nero looked worriedly at Roxas as he looked back at the sketches.

"Are you sure you still wanna go through with this Roxas ?"

"Yeah…..I'm sure..and...I'm sorry I lashed out on you like that Nero." Nero just smiled and ruffled his hair accepting his apology. V just watched the interaction with a calculating look.

'Human emotions…are certainly strange.'

As they walked out the white room and headed towards the room below it, as they entered the room, Roxas warned them to stand back and walked towards the table in the middle of the room. After copying the drawing from the sketch book, and drew it on the table. The floor glowed a bright white and he quickly retreated back towards his companions. When it finally stopped, they looked down and noticed underneath the floor was some stairs leading down to a high tech room, with one door. They walked down the stairs and into the door. In the next room, they noticed a strange machine with a circular device on the top. As they continued to look around Roxas walked up to a computer with all types of monitors, before he grabbed his head in pain. Memories flashed into his mind, people in black cloaks with him being one of them, being followed down an alleyway by those strange creatures, being defeated by a silver haired teenager, and then being placed into the fake world by DiZ and his companion taking away his memories. Roxas stood up straight and summoned the Keyblade, without a second thought, he started smashing the computer and the monitors along with it. Nero and V watched as he did so.

"Aren't you going to stop him."

"No, he needs this." After destroying it, he stood back up and turned towards his companions.

"Sorry about that…"

"It's alright kid, we all need to break stuff once in a while, let's just keep going." He nodded and they moved on to the next room.

After entering the room, they were immediately attacked by Nobodies. The room filled with nothing but sounds of battle and Nero's usual sayings such as.

"Scum!"

"Double-Down!"

"Go home already!"

"Blast!"

"Get out of my sight!"

"Begone!"

After finishing off the final Nobody, Axel walked into the room.

"Simply amazing, Roxas."

"Axel…"

"You really do remember me this time ? I'm SO FLATTERED !" The room was like an oven, the heat was already making them sweat and there feet started to burn. They couldn't even think of going anywhere, the walls were covered in flames as well. "But your too late!" Roxas simply looked at Axel, before pulling out two Keyblades, one white the other obsidian black. "TWO !?"

"So you do have some tricks up your sleeve kid. Well then LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!"

"Come here, I'll make it all stop, BURN BABY !" The floor suddenly caught on fire and their feet started to burn even more, but they ignored it. Axel dashed forward and met up with Roxas in a clash, as Roxas noticed an opening, he quickly launched Axel into the air, with him following suit. As he started to slash at Axel with his keyblades, Axel jumped back only to slam him towards the grounds.

"Thanks for the pass!" As Axel came down towards him Nero's caught him midair, grabbed him with his Buster, and with a loud "SLAM DUNK!" slammed him into ground. Pillars of light rose from the ground and the fire on the ground disappeared. Axel breathed heavily, from where he kneeled.

'This is not fair at all, one against three what a joke.' He then felt excruciating pain when Griffon started electrocuting him from the air. He growled before he summoned a pillar of fire towards the bird. Griffon squawked in pain as it burned his wing. He landed back on V's shoulder

"Sorry V got a little careless their."

"It's fine, it's already over." Axel disappeared into the walls of fire and launched a wave of flames towards them. They all dodged it, Axel appeared behind Roxas trying to take him down, only to get to feel a blade striking his back. He turned around and tried to retaliate against Nero only to get smacked back down onto the ground. Axel, breath was heavy and quick as the flames surrounding them disappeared. Axel slowly got back up and looked at Roxas.

"Let's meet again in the next life." He spoke with a smile

"Yeah, I'll be waiting."

"Silly, just because YOU have a next life…." and Axel disappeared into Darkness. Roxas watched as the Darkness faded away, and he looked at the final door.

"Are you sure about this kid ?" Nero asked one last time.

"Yeah…. I am…" Before he went in he ran towards Nero and V and gave the a small group hug. Nero smiled and hugged back while V awkwardly pat his his head. "I'm gonna miss you guys, you too Griffon, even if we haven't spoke much."

"Don't sweat it." He scratched the top of Griffon's head before walking towards the door, he gave one them one last smile, with a tear dropping onto the floor and entered. Nero smiled and sat on the floor with his back leaning against the wall.

"Are you sure about this Nero ?"

"The kid already agreed, no point in pulling him out now. It's probably his destiny or something." V simply looked at Nero, before sitting beside him.

* * *

After looking at Goofy and Donald's pod he walked into the final door. There saw him, DiZ, the man who saved him yet still cursed him.

"At last, the Keyblade's chosen one." Roxas ignored him and walked up to Sora's pod. DiZ rose an eyebrow at that. "It seems you have come to terms with your predicament."

"I did."

"And why is that ?"

"...I…want to help Nero, he told me his home was in trouble and that he needed a way to get there quick. Nero…is kinda like the older brother I've never had, always teasing me at the most embarrassing moments, scolding and punishing me whenever I do something dumb, he even taught me how to properly use a sword. No matter the situation we were in, he always helped me out of it. This one time…..I want to be the one to help him…" DiZ stared wide eyed at the revelation, he never expected a Nobody to speak so fondly of another but Roxas was here, speaking with his non-existent heart about someone he truly cared about.

"...Very well then I will take my leave." With that, DiZ disappeared in a flash of green numbers. Roxas just watched as the pod opened and revealed a sleeping Sora.

"You're lucky. Looks like my summer vacation is…over." With that Roxas disappeared in a flash of bright light.

* * *

Sora woke up to his name being called, opening his eyes he looked down and noticed Goofy and Donald trying to wake him up. Once the pod opened Sora stretched his limbs and yawned only to quickly stop when he noticed his companions laughing. He smiled and jumped down pulling his friends into a hug, they made sounds of surprise before hugging back.

"Donald! Goofy!" They laughed as they held each other's hands and jumped around. Sora looked on to his right shoulder and watched as Jiminy yawned.

"That was some nap!"

"You mean, we were asleep ?"

"I guess we musta been, or I don't think we'd be so drowsy…"

"When do ya think we went to sleep ?"

"Let's see… we defeated Ansem…Restored peace to the world...found Kairi...Oh, yeah, and then we went to go look for Riku. I think that's right so far." Sora relayed with Goofy giving the occasional "yep"

"Then what ?" Donald asked. They all thought for a second before Goofy looked towards Jiminy.

"What does your journal say, Jiminy ?" As he looked through his journal he blinked when he noticed two sentences.

"Gee there's only two sentences, "Thank, Namine." and "Trust Nero and V". Hm I wonder who these three are." They all shook their heads in negative.

"Some journal that is." Jiminy sputtered before giving a suggestion.

"Well, what do ya say we find out where we are ?" They all nodded before leaving.

* * *

As they left the pod rooms, they noticed two strangers sitting on the floor against the wall. While Goofy and Donald were on guard. They forgot Sora was too friendly for his own good. He walked up to them only to freeze midway. The white haired one smirked before getting up.

"Bout time you woke u-" Only to be interrupted as Sora hugged him. Donald and Goofy couldn't help but gawk. Sora blushed and quickly backed away.

"S-sorry about that, I don't know what came over me, my names Sora, this Donald and Goofy." He then pointed at his friends with their respective names.

'Guess they do share the same heart.' Nero thought before responding.

"Nice to meet you Sora, name's Nero, my moody friend here is V, and his ugly pet bird is Griffon"


End file.
